In a deal rivaled only by itself, Sony liquidated another of its high-value immovable assets, selling and leasing back the iconic Sony City Osaki, located in Japan, for a whopping $1.2 billion (equivalent of). The deal was clinched with a Japan-based holding company. The Japanese conglomerate recently disposed of its New York-based Sony Tower for $1.1 billion, in a recent fashion.

The deal allows Sony to walk home with enough cash to write off any immediate debt and/or overcome cash-crunch. The Sony City Osaki sale closely follows disposal of Sony Tower New York and relocation of its global headquarters from Sweden back to Japan.

Sony Corporation ("Sony") today announced that it has sold its Sony City Osaki office building and premises to Nippon Building Fund Inc. and a Japanese institutional investor. The sale was structured such that Sony placed the office building and premises in a trust and then sold the trust beneficiary rights. Sony and other Sony Group businesses will remain in the building for a period of five years after the sale under a lease agreement entered into separately.

The sale price is 111.1 billion yen. After deducting expenses related to transaction costs, Sony received net cash proceeds today of 110 billion yen. As a result of the sale, Sony expects to realize a gain on the sale of approximately 41 billion yen, to be recorded as operating income, in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

As stated on February 7, 2013 in the announcement of Sony's forecast for consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, Sony has identified certain assets for possible sale as part of an initiative to transform its business portfolio and reorganize its assets. This sale was conducted as a part of that initiative. While this sale was aniticipated and the potential gain on the sale was taken into account at the time of the forecast, Sony is currently reevaluating the aggregate impact of this sale and other factors on the forecast.

Reasons for this saleSony is transforming its business portfolio and reorganizing its assets in an effort to strengthen its corporate structure. This sale was conducted as a part of this reorganization.